BEEFING UP
NEW FARMHAUS LOCATION OFFERS SAME BURGERS, NEW VIEW SUSAN O’KEEFE
The smell of newness mixed pleasantly with a smoky scent of burgers as my colleagues and I entered the newly opened Farmhaus Burger on Flowing Wells Road. Arriving at high noon, Farmhaus employees heartily greeted a steady rush of incoming customers. After perusing the specialty menu of mostly burgers, burgers, and more burgers, we took the hint that Farmhaus was serious about its burgers. An amusing sign served as an indicator of what to do next: 1. Order your food. 2. Find a seat. 3. Be awesome. It seemed simple enough, so we stood in line to place our order, found a table for four and proceeded to be awesome. Our order consisted of a variety of burgers including the haus burger, the buildyour-own burger, and the wild turkey burger. I sampled each of them and vowed to return and order my own. We also tried the haus salad which included a generous portion of leafy lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onions, cheddar cheese and a side of blue cheese dressing as a final topping. For our vegetarian friends, there is a wonderful garden burger made with organic Sea Island red peas. For our chicken sandwich
Farmhaus Burger
Farmhaus Burger has two locations; 1204 Broad Street in downtown Augusta and 466 Flowing Wells Road in Martinez. www.farmhausburger.com friends, a couple of yard bird entries are also on the menu. (Yard birds is Farmhaus language for chicken sandwiches.) We filled our own cups with water, iced tea and soda at a contemporary counter station which held an assortment of fountain tabs, condiments, napkins and such. Since it’s only been open for a few months, every inch of the restaurant sparkled with spic-n-span cleanliness. Ranging from booths, tables and a bar, to a spacious covered outdoor seating area, Farmhaus had room to meet every
54 Buzz on Biz October 27—November 16, 2016
seating need. There were wheelchair accessible areas as well as quieter areas of the dining room. The manager informed us that heaters would be added to the outdoor area once fall arrives in full force. While waiting for our food, we noticed several different groups of people dining at Farmhaus. There were professionals dressed in suits and scrubs. Three gal pals enjoyed a ladies’ lunch date. A few hardworking landscape laborers downed several cups of sweet tea as fast as they could refill their cups. A married couple gave me two thumbs up on the food, the atmosphere, and the location. Their seats were near the immense windows which add to the open, airy atmosphere at Farmhaus. A few black-and-white poster-sized pictures adorn the walls plus whimsical signs giving life advice are mounted around the dining area. Farmhaus is easily accessible from I-20 and Wheeler Road. For a business lunch or a celebratory office gathering, Farmhaus could certainly fit the bill. It offers the same food as the down-
town location on Broad Street, with a slightly more spectacular view, but is much quicker for lunch for businesses in Columbia County. It’s also fairly easy on the pocketbook. Ten bucks will buy customers a generous burger, chicken sandwich, or salad, with an order of fried pickles or tater tots plus refillable drinks. Staff T-shirts encouraged residents to keep local money in local coffers with the Farmhaus motto “Beef up your local economy.” From this vantage point, beefing up the local economy has never tasted better.
Susan O’Keefe has been reviewing restaurants for Buzz on Biz since August 2015. Her reviews are based with a business lunch in mind.